Comments Thread For: Bob Arum breaks down the progress of his 2012 Olympic class

[Mitchell Kane]

Errol Spence Jr is something else, though (also, imo, Michael Hunter Cruiserweight and Khhrytov middleweight look like the goods too).

Would take Errol Spence Jr alone over Top Rank's 4, without much waver tbh; a handsome American, seemingly southpaw cross between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Ray Leonard, who could end up fighting 147/154/160, and be on top for the next ten years is a massive coup; anything else is upside, imo.

Spence looked good beating up Algeiri but I haven't seen this Mayweather/Leonard mix you're talking about.

[killakali]

to be fair arum has moved his 2012 olympians pretty slowly. i expected many of these fighters to be further along by now

loma and valdez have moved prety fast but i get your point

[Scipio2009]

Agreed, but I think Lomachenko is just as big a coupe as Spence. Arum has already proven that he can turn a non-american into a ppv star in Manny Pacquiao, and add to that that Floyd and Oscar were originally in Top Rank and you can easily see Lomachenko becoming a future ppv star by the time he reaches welterweight, and it looks like that is his destination.

Arum also has Crawford so he looks set for the future in that 140-154 category, and Postol looks like he could be a contender too.

There will be some interesting Haymon vs TC match-ups in the future for sure.

Lomachenko, Verdijo, Terrence Crawford, Postol, Bradley vs Spence, Thurman, Robert Easter, Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, Shaun Porter.

These guys will all be campaigning at welterweight at some point I presume, and if Haymon and Arum really will do business with each other from now on then we are in for some fireworks.

Vasyl Lomachenko is a 28-year old super featherweight fighter, who fought in the 2012 Olympics at 132lbs, and is not comfortable with being conversational in English in interviews (whether he speaks/reads/understands English in his personal life is unimportant to me); if he gets even up to 140lbs, I'd be shocked. Beyond that, Top Rank had the crutch of building Pacquiao's name off of Floyd Mayweather Jr's and a cuckolded boxing press; he has neither advantage with Lomachenko.

I like Terrence Crawford, but I don't think he has the flash/personality to break through unless he ends up with a B-Hop type run (looking at just height/reach, and seeing the type of other young talent coming along, I see Crawford topping out at 147 anyway.

Lastly, Al Haymon and Bob Arum don't do business together; to simply assume that Al Haymon would simply go 50/50 with Arum's fighters is a mistake.

Kell Brook, imo, will knock off Jessie Vargas to be IBF/WBO champion, WBA champ Keith Thurman and WBC champ Danny Garcia will end up having scraps to have a unified champion, and I see Haymon/Hearn freezing out Arum/Oscar etc, keeping things in-house, unless Top Rank is able to get one of their welterweights positioned as mandatory challenger.

Things are a bit easier at 140, but even then the freezeout is real (with Ricky Burns still being WBA super champion, Broner/Figueroa Jr/Molina Jr/etc still have a 14- title to work around without having to bother with Arum). And Haymon basically has relationships with 3 of the 4 titlist at 135lbs.

just sayin'

[Scipio2009]

Michael Hunter hasn't stepped up yet and Khrytov started with a **** and has slowed down a bit. I am not sure Hunter is even with Haymon. He is with Floyd but most of Floyd's fighters aren't signed to Haymon.

Spence is already 26 and got a relatively late start. Guys like Verdejo, Valdez and Jose Ramirez already sell more tickets than him. He may end up the better fighter but there is more to it than that. Guys like Gvozdyk, Murata and Falcao have good potential as well.

The thing is we have already seen guys like Herring, Breazeale, Warren, etc fail on the top level. The only guy who has failed out of TR's crue is Shiming who is mostly a gimic to sell tickets and host shows in China

Michael Hunter works out of Floyd's gym (and other gyms as well), but he's apparently not signed to Mayweather Promotions (no mention of him on their site); you add that he was on that 2012 US team, and I'm fairly certain that he's with Haymon.

How is a"relatively late start" for Spence Jr, especially when he didn't have a super long amateur career before turning pro?

Spence-Algieri had an apparent attendance of over 7500 fans (http://abc11.com/sports/errol-spence...-20-0/1295303/ ). No idea what the actual gate was for the event, but I doubt that Verdejo, Valdez, or Ramirez are bringing in those numbers are that kind of money. Spence-Bundu is heading to Brooklyn and I have no doubt that the business he'll do will crush anything Verdejo has ever done anywhere.

Top Rank is taking the painfully slow process with their 2012 Olympic class; Haymon's not lightning with the pace that he's moving guys, but he's moving them more briskly along that Arum is (full disclosure, I think Ramirez, Valdez, and Verdejo all get washed out once they actually get put in with live opposition).

[Scipio2009]

Comparing the classes after 4 years is way too premature...and where some of these guys are currently ranked is absolutely meaningless.

Used rankings, solely for the reason to point out that Haymon has moved his guys along quite well; of the 9 fighters listed, 6 of them are already world-level contenders/fringe world-level.

How many fighters in Top Rank's 2012 class, for years on, are approaching/at world level, with same being asked for the 2012 classes of every other promoter?

[Scipio2009]

Spence looked good beating up Algeiri but I haven't seen this Mayweather/Leonard mix you're talking about.

If you don't think he's the truth, that's on you. I'm a believer

[Mitchell Kane]

Used rankings, solely for the reason to point out that Haymon has moved his guys along quite well; of the 9 fighters listed, 6 of them are already world-level contenders/fringe world-level.

How many fighters in Top Rank's 2012 class, for years on, are approaching/at world level, with same being asked for the 2012 classes of every other promoter?

Lomachenko - 2-division titlist
Shiming - lost as title challenger, currently #2 WBO, #3 IBF, #10 WBC
Valdez - title shot this month, #1 WBC, #1 WBO, #2 WBA,
Gvozdyk - #6 WBC, #10 IBF
Murata - #3 IBF, #3 WBO, #4 WBC, #9 WBA
Verdejo - #1 WBO, #6 IBF, #9 WBC
Ramirez - #10 WBC

[John Locke]

Thank you.
I hope GGG and Loeffler can sign most of the Kazakh team. I also hope they look for other Eastern European and Asian fighters.



I would have to think about it to be sure, but I think you pretty much nailed it.
Off the top of my head: Cuba is #1, I would say Kazakhstan is #2. I think either Russia or Great Britain are #3. I would slightly favor Russia since I think they will end up taking more medals. I think the 2020 Russian team could be really good (something special if you will). As long as they let their young talent develop properly. This Russian team isn't bad at all, as you can see they're in discussion for top 3 team wise, but I feel like Russia is in rebuilding stage right now.

I would have to go over the teams and really think about it to have a better answer.
Uzbekistan is probably also up there with Russia and Great Britain. They have a fantastic team.
Azerbaijan will probably also take some medals. I don't think they're quite up there with the five teams I previously named though, but they have about four guys that can end up medaling.
Brazil is the host nation they will obviously take some medals. Not up there with the other teams, but being hosts will help them.
That's off the top of my head. I may be forgetting other teams.

Who do you think could end up medaling for Azerbaijan bro? Selimov and Mamishzada are the two standouts for me, who else can get the job done?

[killakali]

Michael Hunter works out of Floyd's gym (and other gyms as well), but he's apparently not signed to Mayweather Promotions (no mention of him on their site); you add that he was on that 2012 US team, and I'm fairly certain that he's with Haymon.

How is a"relatively late start" for Spence Jr, especially when he didn't have a super long amateur career before turning pro?

Spence-Algieri had an apparent attendance of over 7500 fans (http://abc11.com/sports/errol-spence...-20-0/1295303/ ). No idea what the actual gate was for the event, but I doubt that Verdejo, Valdez, or Ramirez are bringing in those numbers are that kind of money. Spence-Bundu is heading to Brooklyn and I have no doubt that the business he'll do will crush anything Verdejo has ever done anywhere.

Top Rank is taking the painfully slow process with their 2012 Olympic class; Haymon's not lightning with the pace that he's moving guys, but he's moving them more briskly along that Arum is (full disclosure, I think Ramirez, Valdez, and Verdejo all get washed out once they actually get put in with live opposition).

remember that close to half those tickets for spence were freebies and remember algieri is the ticket seller in ny

[HI-TECH Boxing]

Who do you think could end up medaling for Azerbaijan bro? Selimov and Mamishzada are the two standouts for me, who else can get the job done?

Mamishzada, Javid Chalabiyev, and Selimov are probably the three guys that have the best chances for Gold for Azerbaijan.
Selimov is the best boxer of the team, but he's in what could be the best division in amateur boxing right now. And he has to go through Brazil's best boxer, Conceicao, and guess who is the host nation? That's right, Brazil.
Chalabiyev could be a crowd favorite. Not the most technical, not that wild either, but the guy fights his ass off. Probably the second highest chances for Gold. Maybe even the highest since his division is nowhere near as tough compared to the Lightweight division. Selimov is way better than Chalabiyev, but Selimov is just in a really tough division, so maybe Chalabiyev will have the best chances for Gold.
I just can't see Mamishzada beating Aloyan to be honest, but he should definitely get a medal.

Lorenzo Sotomayor and Parviz Baghirov are two other guys that can potentially medal. Sotomayor is in another tough weight class, probably top 2 along with Lightweight, so it's going to be difficult. I honestly can't see Sotomayor beating Dunaytsev or Toledo or my darkhorse, the young Kazakh, Zhussupov (who already beat Sotomayor). Pat McCormack of Great Britain is another great boxer, who will be extremely tough to beat. Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan will also be tough to beat. And I still may be missing a few. So yeah, as you can see Sotomayor is in a really really tough division. Might be my favorite division to be honest. I doubt Sotomayor medals, but he does have a chance.
I haven't been too impressed with Baghirov, but he's had success in the past so he may medal.
Oh, you can't forget Majidov at Super Heavyweight. He is not the same anymore imo, but he should still be able to medal. He has a higher chance of medaling than Sotomayor or Baghirov imo.
Abdullayev at Heavyweight could medal, but he'll probably need a favorable draw.
Teymur Mammadov and Rufat Huseynov can also medal.

Azerbaijan has a lot of medal potential for these games.